1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to liquid crystal display devices. In particular, the present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device with high front contrast and suppressed downward grayscale inversion.
2. Description of Related Art
In liquid crystal display devices in the related art, optical films with various optical characteristics are used for optical compensation. For example, as an optical compensation film for a twisted-nematic (TN) liquid crystal display device, an optical compensation film that has an optically anisotropic layer formed of a liquid crystal composition and that is disposed on a transparent support member formed of a polymer film has been proposed.
One problem in the TN mode is that, when the liquid crystal display device is viewed obliquely from a 45-degree position (normally from below) relative to the liquid-crystal director direction, details in the shadow turn black or grayscale inversion (i.e., inversion of dark and light in the grayscale) occurs at any grayscale level, thus significantly lowering the display quality.
For ensuring a sufficient viewing angle for the liquid crystal display device, there have been studies with regard to providing a light scattering film over the viewing surface of the liquid crystal display device (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Applications, Publication Nos. 2006-133463 and 2002-90527).